SpaceX just completed one of its most difficult missions to date

Success! SpaceX completed its second mission of the year, which
was also one of its most difficult to date.

And we have to say that it's about time. After four scrubs, two
of which were down to the last minutes, SpaceX has kept us in
launch limbo for the last nine days.

But on Friday evening, our patience was rewarded. At exactly 6:35
p.m. ET, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off toward space carrying
with it the 17,500-pound SES-9
communications satellite:

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SpaceX

SpaceX's
goal was to transport the SES-9 satellite into orbit about 25,000
miles above sea level. Obviously, that takes some time for the
rocket to reach such great heights.

About 32 minutes after lift-off, the crowd at SpaceX cheered as
the rocket's second stage successfully deployed its payload into
space, which you can see taking place below. This marked a
successful end to SpaceX's mission.

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SpaceX

Weighing in at approximately
11,750 pounds, the SES-9 satellite will be the largest payload
yet that SpaceX has launched to such great heights.

Consequently, this is also one of SpaceX's most difficult
missions to date.

While the main mission was a success, SpaceX had a secondary goal
to attempt to land the first stage of its rocket on board a
floating ocean platform called "Of Course I Still Love You."

A successful landing is a critical step in SpaceX's future
asprations to usher in an era of cheaper spaceflights run on
reusable rockets.

This time around, SpaceX had low hopes of pulling off the
landing, and their expectations were proven correct. The
landing was unsuccessful.
Click here for more details.

In the mean time, check out what the previous three ocean
platform lading attempts looked like below: